ARMENIAN LEADER SAYS AUTHORITIES READY FOR ANY OPPOSITION MOVE

Mediamax, Armenia
Feb 29 2008

Yerevan, 29 February: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan described
today as "predictable" the actions of Ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

Mediamax reports that, holding a meeting today with the students
of Yerevan State University (YSU), Robert Kocharyan noted that "the
germ for this was already there two weeks prior to the elections –
already then one of the candidates declared his victory, and from
this point of view, his today’s actions are natural".

The Armenian president proposed four scenarios of the further
development of the situation:

a. massive events actively continue with an effort to attract new
people, however, the society undergoes strong disappointment and does
not forgive the guilty ones for its stressful state;

b. hopelessness brings the participants of the protest to the
repetition of 1996, when the participants of the protests tried to
seize state structures – in this case, the law-enforcement bodies
will suppress such actions;

c. leaders of the protests thank the people for support, preserving
their influence over those people and get prepared for the next
elections;

d. leaders of the protests thank the society for support, congratulate
the newly-elected president, ask to be well-disposed to the arrested
and "start writing another scientific work".

The Armenian president stated that the authorities are ready to any
of these scenarios.

Robert Kocharyan stated that the authorities continue waiting
patiently for the protest actions to decline themselves. Otherwise,
the authorities will be forces to defend the constitutional order,
and many people, now on the platforms of the rally, will be brought
to account, the president stated.